Medical Experts Testify In Murder Trial Of Talihina Man

POTEAU — Burns covered 42.5 percent of Kristi Ferguson’s body, a nurse testified Friday during the second day of testimony in the capital-murder trial of Donnie Lee Harris.

POTEAU — Burns covered 42.5 percent of Kristi Ferguson’s body, a nurse testified Friday during the second day of testimony in the capital-murder trial of Donnie Lee Harris.

Harris, 31, of Talihina, is charged with first-degree felony murder in the March 9, 2012, death of Ferguson, 25, of Pocola, his on-and-off girlfriend.

The District Attorney’s Office alleges he intentionally doused Ferguson with gasoline the night of Feb. 18, 2012, then set her afire. The resultant blaze also destroyed Harris’ family home.

Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Margaret Nicholson, Rhonda Jo Kimberly Norman, a member of the Burn Unit team at Integris Baptist Medical Center of Oklahoma City, testified that Ferguson required a ventilator to breathe, she developed low blood pressure that required treatment with medication, and when her kidneys began failing, she was placed on continuous dialysis. By March 8, she was listed as do not resuscitate and placed on comfort care only.

Dr. Mason Jett, a surgeon who was the Burn Unit doctor, testified that most of Ferguson’s burns were third-degree although she suffered a combination of second- and third-degree burns. The largest burn areas were her legs, arms and entire abdomen and face.

"This is a full-body, multi-system injury," Jett said.

It involved her lungs, kidneys, brain, heart, circulatory system — her entire body, he stressed.

The team was able only to do the original debridement, removal of dead skin all the way down to the viable fat, because her condition deteriorated so that she could not again be placed under general anesthesia, he said. The only way burns so extensive could have healed would have been with skin grafts, Jett said.

Although Ferguson’s condition began deteriorating immediately, by the sixth to eighth day the major deterioration began; she could no longer obtain sufficient oxygen, and as a result, her heart couldn’t pump properly, the doctor said.

Oklahoma Indigent Defense System attorney Peter Astor declined to cross-examine the nurse and the doctor.

Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner Eric Pfeifer testified that the pneumonia and inflammation Ferguson suffered in both lungs resulted from her having been burned.

Under Nicholson’s questioning, he stated that the burn injuries were consistent with Ferguson having been splashed with a flammable liquid.

Under a brief cross-examination by defense co-counsel James Bowen, Pfeifer testified that the burn pattern could also be consistent with other scenarios, such as her having fallen into a flammable substance.

If convicted, Harris could face the death penalty. Testimony will resume before LeFlore County District Judge Jon Sullivan at 8:45 a.m. Monday.